Man guilty of ex's rape and attempt murder

Mark Alan Jarosik, 46, leans forward to answer a question from the judge after guilty verdicts are read in his trial Thursday afternoon. Jarosik is accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend outside her Ladera Ranch home just days after being released from jail on charges of raping her. SAM GANGWER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – A Chicago architect looked straight ahead and sat with his hands folded in front of him Thursday as an Orange County jury found him guilty of raping and attempting to kill his ex-girlfriend.

A jury of nine women and three men deliberated just over half a day before finding Mark Alan Jarosik, 46, guilty of multiple charges, including rape, attempted sodomy, attempted murder and soliciting an Orange County jail inmate to murder the woman.

The jury in Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseño's courtroom did not find true an enhancement that the rape occurred in the commission of a burglary.

"I am just happy that the jury carefully considered all of the evidence, and the victim got justice today," Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker said.

Jarosik punched his former girlfriend, threw her on the ground and "brutally banged her head" over and over into the curb until he was subdued by neighbors in the woman's Ladera Ranch neighborhood, the prosecutor told jurors.

He was out on bail on charges of rape and attempted sodomy and in violation of a restraining order when he attacked the victim in 2009.

Jarosik testified he punched the woman in the face, pushed her in the gutter and bashed her head into the curb in "a rash impulse" but never intended to kill her. He was angry after being previously accused of raping her, he said.

"I am not that monster. I am not that guy (who attacked the woman). I am a family man," he said during trial, tearfully explaining his actions. "I am not some crazed lunatic running around. I gotta get home to a career, to my children. I happened to fall."

The woman survived the attack but was left with physical impairments, including memory loss, prosecutors said.

Walker said Jarosik told a jailhouse inmate how he wanted the woman's death to be "slow, painful and he wants it videotaped because he wants to watch it for Christmas."

Defense attorney Michael Molfetta told jurors the case was all about perceptions and intent. At the time of the attack, his client "snapped" when he saw his ex-girlfriend, the lawyer said.

Jarosik intended to speak with the woman when he went to retrieve his belongings after he was bailed out from Orange County jail by his mother, but he "lost it," according to his testimony.

Labeling himself narcissistic, the defendant described how his life unraveled after he and the woman had a relationship for about four years that began with an extramarital affair in Las Vegas.

Jarosik called himself a pig for starting the affair while both he and the woman were married with children. After they separated from their spouses, Jarosik left his architect firm in Chicago to move to California, eventually moving in with his then-girlfriend.

Mark Alan Jarosik, 46, leans forward to answer a question from the judge after guilty verdicts are read in his trial Thursday afternoon. Jarosik is accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend outside her Ladera Ranch home just days after being released from jail on charges of raping her. SAM GANGWER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Mark Alan Jarosik, 46, sits in court quietly as guilty verdicts are read in his trial Thursday afternoon. Jarosik is accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend outside her Ladera Ranch home just days after being released from jail on charges of raping her. SAM GANGWER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Mark Alan Jarosik, 46, right, looks at his attorney, Mike Molfetta, as guilty verdicts are read in his trial Thursday afternoon. Jarosik is accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend outside her Ladera Ranch home just days after being released from jail on charges of raping her. SAM GANGWER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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